Date and Time
Thursday, April 15, 2021
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm CDT
Synopsis
The current pandemic represents a unique opportunity to evaluate the associated psychological impact in various sociocultural groups and contexts, providing important lessons that could be applied in response to future disasters. A Canadian-led collaboration of research in eight countries aims to measure the role communication strategies and media discourse play in shaping psychological and behavioural responses of the populations during the COVID-19 outbreak. With the second wave of the infection being reported in many countries, the study is timely to report and address the psychosocial manifestations people are facing.
Dr. Melissa Généreux, CIHR lead, holds a doctorate in medicine, a master’s degree in public health and a specialization in community medicine from the University of Montreal. After having been appointed as Director of Public Health for six years in the Estrie region, she now acts as a medical adviser both at the regional and provincial level in Quebec, presents an overview of the initial psychosocial health trajectory and behavioural response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her presentation will cover the epidemiological psychosocial sequelae of the pandemic across countries, based on reported mental health problems per (DSM-V Diagnostic Statistical Manual-V) and coping strategies adopted by survey respondents.
This webinar on the mental health challenges at the population level and their behavioural response is for public health practitioners, clinicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Detailed information on the project can be access here.
Speaker
Dr. Généreux is the CIHR lead, holds a doctorate in medicine, a master’s degree in public health and a specialization in community medicine from the University of Montreal. After having been appointed as Director of Public Health for six years in the Estrie region, she now acts as a medical adviser both at the regional and provincial level in Quebec. She has developed an expertise in the field of disaster management and psychosocial recovery through her strong involvement during the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy in 2013 that destroyed a large part of the downtown area, both as a researcher and as a decision-maker, as well as through her support brought to public health authorities as a consultant during the 2016 Fort McMurray fires in Alberta and the 2017 and 2019 spring floods in Quebec.
As a member of the WHO Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework Research Network (TPRN), she has developed a strong international network and has contributed to several knowledge creation and transition activities in the field of disaster risk reduction (e.g. WHO expert meeting, workshops, conferences, scientific papers, reports, book chapters). She is currently leading two studies, one on the sociosanitary consequences during and after the 2019 spring floods in Quebec, and another on the psychological and behavioral response to the COVID-19 pandemic.